Tales of a justicar: The City
by Xebas
Summary: The draenei justicar Januul has stationed himself in Stormwind City, to learn more about the Alliance. And of course also to help cleanse the city of the scum.


(My first story here. I would love if you took your time to write a review, especially where I could improve, but of course also where it is decent. Thank you, just for reading it actually :) )

Trade district.  
The name didn't truly fit the idea that Juunal had about a proper financial city quarter. Was too open. After all these years of service, he had grown some paranoia. But only when he was on duty. Not an official duty. Many would not even recognize what he did as a duty, but more as the work of a lunatic. But he did not care. He had his own goals.  
He stood a bit away from the main square, standing in the cold shadows, leaning his massive form up against a brick wall. His shining light blue eyes went from trader, to buyer, and back again. He did this all day, when he needed a rest. Once a young human had tried to pick pocket him while he observed the busy stormwindian financial life. He left the thief with a scare, and a gold coin, for he did respect a man that dared to steal from a draenei. He did know how it was to stand in front of a creature so much larger than one self.  
And he did also feel pity for the thief. He was still not used to poverty. For him, it was strange. How a society could not look out for their poor. How they could not share with them. But then again, the humans did also lack the Prophet.  
A crow landed on his left golden shoulder plate, and it began to peck furiously at the metal, before it got whipped away with one of his tentacles.  
"Those criminal scums, ey'?"  
The voice came from behind him, from the alley, and it was course. It sounded used.  
Juunal slowly turned around, sighing as he was forced to leave the trade district show alone. His favorite merchant, a gnome, and his favorite buyer, a woman, had once again begun to discuss the price of something. They did that every day. He enjoyed it fully. The man who had spoken was standing a few meters away from the armored draenei, smiling broadly. He had not been shaved for many days, perhaps weeks, but perhaps it was just what kind of beard that was in at the time.  
"The bird?" Juunal answered.  
"Aye, my armored blue friend."  
The man grinned and began to rub himself behind his ear.  
"They steal everything they can lay their eyes on. And heh, you got quite some armor. It's fancy."  
As the man had spoken, Juunal began to pecking sound once again. It came from his hooves. They were covered in thin plating as well. The bird could peck on, if it wanted.  
"I am not your friend. And yes, that is how our armor looks."  
He was tired of low life small talkers. He did not mind low lifers at all, though they were exotic to him, it was more the fact that they normally had very boring conversation topics. Everyday life. Dull.  
The man narrowed his eyes to get a better look at Januul, before he began to tap on his front teeth with his index finger.  
"One of those holy types, ain't we? Heh, I know your kind, friend... Been one myself, what'cha say? You didn't guess that, did you?"  
"No. I did not."  
It did truly surprise Januul. He had seen some of the Stormwind paladins before, and they looked nowhere as the man before him. But of course, looks can be deceiving. And the man's accent did also confuse him, they usually did. No system in it. And then the words, broken down. Changed. He had spent many hours learning common.  
"But what is it that you want?" Januul said, with the twitch of a tentacle.  
"Ah, it's almost nothing... But now since that you are a paladin, which I take it, I actually do have a problem, you see."  
The crow gave the plated hoof one last peck, before it flew away, greatly irritated.  
"Go on, hum-... Ahem, go on, sir?" He had experienced humans finding great insult in calling them by their race.  
"Well, a friend of mine, you know, she got robbed. Lots of money lost."  
"Stormwind has no guards?"  
The man grumbled something lowly as he nodded, and moved his hands behind his back.  
"Of course they have, but you know, here in Stormwind... Robbers are violent. She got injured, a lot. She need healing, and the cathedral is so far away, my friend."  
It smelled as a lie from far away, and the man knew that. Januul knew that. Luckily, they also knew that the other one knew. They just stood there, the man rubbing his hands together behind his back, and Januul pondering over it. Should he, should he not. He could be telling the truth, and his friend did indeed lay injured somewhere.  
The sound of the woman yelling at the gnome broke the silence that had formed between them. She obviously felt that the price was so high, that it had to be illegal.  
"Lead on." He finally said.

As they walked through the narrow alleys, he was aware of anything just slightly suspicious. He had only been in the human city for a year, the blink of an eye. If all humans asked for help the same way, he did not yet know. But if it was a holdup, or a trap, they would be sorry that they even tried.  
"And how is your friend injured?" He asked, after five minutes.  
"Ah, you know, my friend. A knife in the arm."  
Januul lifted an eyebrow as he stepped over a stray cat, lying in a small ray of light, and followed the man further into the city quarter.  
"A knife wound in the arm? That is not lethal. She could easily have walked to the cathedral to find a priest."  
Another alley crossed with theirs, and he saw two human children playing with a ball, down in the furthest end of one of them.  
"Eh, it was a rusty knife, yes. And a large one. She bled far too much to be able to walk, you know."  
"You could have carried her, in the time it took to find me, talk, and bring me back."  
He did not like this, not even the slightest. It was off, and he had known that the same second that he took the first step after the unshaved man. The lack of any weapons, other than the three ceremonial knifes chained to his left shoulder pad, did also make him a bit nervous.  
"Well, she's pretty fat, you know." The man said, snickering loudly.  
"And ar-"  
"Ey', would'ya' shut up already? Were soon there. Eh, I meant... Bah, sorry friend."  
He looked backwards, and flashed a white smile before he suddenly turned to the left, and began to walk up a steep stairway. Then, he proceeded to unlock a heavy wooden door with a key that he had found from somewhere in his vest, and stepped inside. Januul was merely ten centimeters from him, as he stood still in the door opening, looking inside. It was a usual human house, first floor. A few chairs were put around a table, and there were a fireplace in the far corner.  
"She was robbed inside of the house? And I do not see any blood, is she upstairs?"  
"Yes, yes she is. And the robbers came in here, and she saw them, and they stabbed her. Twice."  
"But you... Ah, forget it." Januul sighed deeply and stepped into the house. The wooden planks almost cried out in pain as the plated paladin walked through the room, before the strange man spun around on his heel.  
"Ah, by the way... You like wine?"  
There came no answer from Januul, as the door suddenly slammed shut behind him. The only light that now came, was from his own armor, as the windows had been closed with planks. He had only seen that, from where he now stood.  
"Well, what we got here, eh... One of those goat folk?"  
He smiled for himself, as he slowly turned around, but only half. He had to be able to see both sides at the same time. He did finally know that it was a trap, though. he enjoyed knowing what he had to work with.  
"It is called draenei." He calmly said.  
The three men that stood at the door were all wearing cloth rags on them, and two of them had a knife stuck in their belts. The third had one in his boot.  
"And I take it that there are no injured friends here."  
All four men cackled loudly, before the middle of the three door-men stood forward.  
"You paladin folk got all that shiny armor, you know. And especially you goat folk. Lots of money, so... Well, would'ya' be so kind to just hand some of that shiny treasure over?"  
The sound of more than one pair of feet walking, came from the stairway leading up to the second floor, and Januul began to feel the adrenaline slowly beginning to surge through him.  
It was long since he fought against that many. Though, they were just small humans. Criminals it seemed. Bandits. They had never gotten a proper education, much less training in combat.  
"How do you know that draenei are rich?"  
His left hoof scrapped against the floor, and he clenched a plated fist.  
"Hah, you ain't the first goat we robbed, is he boys?"  
More than seven voices loudly yelled **no! **as an answer. They were more than he expected.  
"Did you harm any draenei." He did not exactly except an answer, and the crystals in his shoulder pads began to light up, sending out a purple light now. He began to get a picture of the men at the stairway through the light. He had used that spell many times.  
"Pah, not more than usual..."  
The last thing that Januul saw through his light was that one of the newcomers from the stairway had a crossbow in his hand. And he had it already lifted up, pointing at him. Then he charged.  
All the bandits saw was that the draenei vanished into a form of pure light, less a body, and to them it looked like it was pulled towards the door in the matter of a second. Then Januul appeared in front of the three men. The man to the left blacked out the same second that the plated fist hit his nose, while the one in the middle, the leader he guessed, slammed heavily into the door. Blood sprayed out from the leaders broken lips and nose as Januul spun around, pulling the last man with him, as a cover. It had all taken less than five seconds, and the rest of the bandits simply stood there, stunned. Only the crossbow wielder could pull himself together to fire. But it was already too late. The bolt simply dug into the last door-mans chest, forcing a loud scream of agony out from him, before Januul casually threw him aside. As he ran through the room, he made sure not to step in the wet spots that had been formed from the bolt struck mans blood. There were five men at the stair, two of them looking with fear and disgust at the man who had been used at a shield.

"Shoot it damnit!"  
The room was not more than five meters wide, but two of the bandits were already fleeing away from Januul through the stair, and they were far faster than him, due to his heavy armor. And his spell had taken up his magical reserves for a moment. One of the remaining bandits pulled a short sword up from a hilt that he kept at his side, and jestingly pointed it at him. No good. As Januul got to him, he simply wrapped his massive fist around the blade and pulled both that, and the man towards him. His eyes widened as the blade was forced out of his hand. With a swift hit from the flat side, the man was down. Four men left. Two on the run. The crossbow man was busy loading, while the one that had lead him into the trap began to back away, not seeming to notice that he soon would hit a wall, only half a meter from the stairway.  
"I-I-Im sorry man! I don't want no trouble, aight? We, eh, we can all be fri-."  
As the crossbow man finally finished loading his weapon, he looked up with dismay in his eyes as he noticed that the giant stood in front of him. Januul grabed his right arm, the one holding the crossbow, before his free fist struck against the arm. The sound of the bone snapping could have been one of the reasons that the man let out a bone shattering scream. But perhaps just from the pain. Januul grabbed the crossbow and lifted it up, before he knocked the screaming bandit out with it. That was when his "friend" attacked. Januul bashed his arm against the knife, sending it flying through the room before he impaled the attacker on the loaded arrow. The arrowhead dug into the soft flesh, into his lung, in less than second before he pulled it out again. Then he turned around, to see the man who had been pierced to the door trying to pull himself off again.  
"_The window, the fucking window!"_  
The sound of glass shattering was heard from the upper floor. The draenei walked over to the man on the door, and kicked them away from it. He simply just broke off the arrow, and crashed against a barrel, where he laid still, only sound from him was his wails of agony. As Januul looked out through the door he saw one of the two remaining bandits flee down through the alley. He didn't get very far, his escape ended with an arrow in his hip. The other man had landed badly, in the fall from the upper window, and had broken his leg. The justicar casually pulled both men back into the house, before he locked the door. There was more than enough rope to tie every single bandit, after he had healed them of their wounds. They were better than new, as he also had cleansed them of their diseases, just in case. The men who were conscious were shaking in fear, hogtied in the corner, afraid of what the blue monster would come back with, as he left the house. They found out a hour after, as he returned from the Stockades, with a group of guards.  
And now all he had to do, was to go back to the market place.  
He had also grown slightly hungry.


End file.
